Ku'u Pu'uwai

chapter 2

I open the front door to the house and walked into the kitchen, my mom was sitting at the table with the magazine and a cup of tea. Dinner was on the stove - spaghetti my favorite!
"Hey mom" I said grabbing an Apple off the table.
"Oh, hey sweetie!" She looked up from her magazine "how was school? Find your soulmate yet?" She winked and got up to stir the spaghetti sauce.
I rolled my eyes "no. Hey I'm gonna go for a walk out in the woods, okay?"
Okay, just don't stay out too long, Ryan is coming over, remember? "
"Yeah I know." I smiled as I headed up the stairs to my room. Ryan is my older brother, for years we were inseparable. we did everything together, shared everything. At least until a few towns ago he met his soulmate Katie and decided tostay, seeing as how he was 18.
I 0 on a pair of jeans and some boots, grabbed my phone and walked out the back door into the woods behind our house. This is my favorite part about the house, it had some Woods, even if they were small. It was nice to have a place to go to clear my head after a long day - which I happened a lot recently. I walked the familiar path I made these past few months to my favorite spot in the world. I climbed up the old oak tree which I had named Nigel. When I was up here I could see everything, I loved it. And no one bothered me. I was afraid at first that Jaden would ruin this one peaceful place in my life, but it seemed almost as though he didn't know it existed. His loss, my gain. I thought. Up here there's no stress of school, no soulmates, no moving, and no. pesty. Neighbors. In short it was pure Bliss.
I took a deep breath of fresh air and let it out slowly closing my eyes. Who knows how long I lay like this lost in thought until I heard someone below say, "remind you of West virgina?"
I sat up quickly and looked below at my brother.
"Ryan!"
I got down as soon as I could and tackled him in a bear hug.
"Hey cucumber" he ruffled my hair like the annoying brother he was. man I missed him in that stupid nickname!
"Like a vegetable and get stuck with a nickname for life," I said into his chest "so unfair"
He chuckled and hugged me tighter. We began to walk down the path back to the house.
"Mom said I might find you here, why am I not surprised?"
I Shrugged "it's the only place I can think"
" would it have anything to do with West Virginia?" He asked with a chuckle
"It has everything to do with West Virginia!"
He and I had grown up in West Virginia together, we always played in the woods like 24/7.
"So how's Katie" i asked. (Katie was Ryan's soulmate)
" why don't you ask her yourself? I brought her with me!"
"Oh." My mood deflated. It was supposed to be just Ryan and I for one weekend. We hadn't had anything like that in a long time, specifically ever since Katie. Don't get me wrong I love Katie but Ryan and I never got any one-on-one time anymore with both of us living in different states. He lives in Kentucky and I like in Virginia, we don't see much of each other anymore with school and jobs.
I tried not to let him see how disappointed I was but he knew me better than that.
" look, Brooke I know you and I were going to spend time together this weekend, and we still will! Just with Katie too! It'll be great for you two to get to know each other better!"
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. there's nothing that could be done, guess I would just have to fully accept that things are always going to be this way. With Grace having Chandler and Ryan having Katie it seemed I was going to be alone a lot. well I just have to grin and bear it. We walked into the house where Mom, Dad, and Katie all sitting at the table with a cup of tea. Katie got up and hugged me tight "we are going to have so much fun this weekend!" Katie explained. Mom and dad were standing behind her smiling broadly. They didn't see anything wrong "yeah" I said wishing the ground would open and swallow me up. "it'll be great."